Darren's Shop

I've been thinking about making a flip down one for my saw. Maybe something like this. With the open spaces, I wouldn't be too tempted to leave stuff laying on it!

The price on this one is a little more than I'd want to spend, but I like the idea.

My drill press cart has been somewhat incomplete since I first built it 4 or 5 years ago.


I never got the drawers cut out for it, so today it got drawers...


I hadn't planned on using the 100 lb glides, but the set I bought I mis-orderd and got 18" instead of 16", but had 16" 100lb ones on hand at least.


Still need to do drawer fronts, but all in good time. The chip pan I built a couple of years back.

Over the past few weeks my powerline adapters have been flaking out and internet in my shop has been dismal at best. I ordered two directional long range wifi repeaters thinking I'd do a wireless network bridge between my house and shop (about 100 feet). They were $58 each and had good reviews, so I ordered them. After ordering them I got to reading the specs and found they are capable of picking up WiFi for about 9 miles.



Given the distance they could receive/transmit over, I decided that two were probably not needed. So when I got them yesterday and decided to test out just setting one up as an AP client, which basically makes it a WiFi to wired Ethernet adapter, not an access point for just any WiFi device to try and connect to.

Since I already have a WiFi router in the shop, I can run it in switch mode and allow WiFi and cabled devices to connect through the current router. The signal for the current router is limited to pretty much a 30' distance outside the shop, so won't have to worry about neighbors using it. This setup also allows a higher security level to be used between my house and shop too as the bridging only allows WEP encryption, not the WPA-PSK/AES encryption.

Anyway, after getting it tested out, my speed check was showing the same download/upload speed (11mbps/4mbps) at the shop as it was at the house. I'm also able to get everything back on a single subnet so all my computers can see one another.

Still need to pickup an antenna mount to permanently install it on the shop, will hopefully get that done tonight (pics to follow).

As for the second device, I have a nephew that lives about 5 miles away and doesn't have internet. May have to see if we can get him setup with one pointing to my house or McDonald's.

For anyone interested or does RV'ing, I came across a good blog about using one of these to get free WiFi or at least a good connection in your RV. It's a 3 part series, long read, but covers a lot of ground.

http://rv.dickeastman.com/2012/01/how-to-build-a-long-range-wi-fi-system-part-1.html

They also make a newer version (150mbps) that is only about $75, check the tp-link site.

And if 9 miles isn't enough, both devices have external antenna adapters to connect one of these so you can reach up to 32 miles away.

I got the device mounted on the outside of the shop. Was planning to get a set of antenna mast brackets, but didn't find them, so improvised with a piece of 1" EMT and two EMT hanger brackets. The device came with a couple of wide zip ties for mounting to a pole, I added a short piece of rubber to keep it from sliding down the pole. It's a little longer than I need, but each bracket is screwed tight into the girt behind the metal and may add another piece of equipment in the future under this one.



To power the device it uses a POE connector (Power Over Ethernet), which they provide the interface for. You plugin the power adapter to the interface and it supplies power to the device over the Ethernet cable. With this setup the POE connector can be up to 200' away from the device to make it easy to install just about anywhere. The other Ethernet connection runs to your computer equipment.


I did some quick re-configuring of my wifi router in the office and now have a connection that is just as fast as when I'm connected at the house.

Now that's sweet!

Just think, no more wires for the bunnies to chew up. Not only could you do streaming music for the plants in the green house, but could have streaming movies out by the pool.

Ain't technology grand?!

Darren Wright said:

...............Anyway, after getting it tested out, my speed check was showing the same download/upload speed (11mbps/4mbps) at the shop as it was at the house...........

Click to expand...

Hmmm, that's double my d/u speed....I wonder if a few{hundred} repeaters along with that set-up could boost my results
Nice up-grade!

Just an update to that wifi repeater I bought above, has been working great, even in the cold weather, not had one issue with it yet.

Got a little organizing done in the shop today, Bradleyizing it as I saw on another post. Since I got the tip from Glenn, he deserves credit, but been buying up some of those plastic shoe boxes from the orange borg for about $1.17 each. I've used up about 35 of them so far and plan to go buy more tomorrow to start organizing all the extra hardware I've got sitting around in boxes. The ones below contain parts for electronic projects and extra camera equipment that I've had piled on the desktop and above the cabinet. Will be putting the P-Touch to use tomorrow to start labeling everything.


Also used a few to organize the reloading bench, got supplies for rifle and pistol separated out and have some shelving to put up to move them off the bench.


Next, I had an old 19" touch screen monitor laying around and picked up an articulating wall mount for it off of Ebay. I decided to trial it under the stereo. I've got a patch cable running from the CPU to the stereo and installed a shelf under the monitor for the keyboard and mouse. Now I can watch TV via the slingbox from the house or listen to Pandora and Google Music through the stereo.



Finally, I have an outdoor wifi IP camera on order, which will add some security to the shop. More on that when I get it installed next weekend.

Well, tonight I decided to get some dust collection installed. A while back I picked up a few sticks of S&D 4" pvc and a whole bunch of 45* elbows and wyes. I finally decided on a layout that would work for most of my tools and leaves some room for expansion. I mostly setup the pipes to go to my RAS and Table Saw for now, but added Wyes at each area to allow for overhead collection and use those connections for other tools at the bench and around the RAS.

I moved my Miter saw, so will have to find a new place for it, though I hardly ever use it anymore as I mostly do miters on the TS now. This allowed me to keep the control unit I've been working on next to the breaker panel, which it senses large current draws and turns on automatically for certain circuits (more on that in an other thread later).

So this is where I got to tonight, need a few adapters and a couple more gates, but it's mostly done for now. The drop on the right side goes up and over the walk way, it has a wye to use for overhead collection at the TS or with tools at the bench.


This is the connection at the DC.


The lower half of the connection at the bench, which is attached to the TS


The lower part of this connection will go to the RAS, the upper will be a 2" hose connected for the upper part of the RAS, but also used for the bandsaw and drill press, Will probably extend this one around the corner to the CNC and lathe also.


I'll probably make a separate run using the other port on the DC to the front of the shop where I have my Oscillating sander and a few other tools.

Amazing thread of a super shop.

2,000 sq-ft is twice the size of my home, not counting my addition.

LOTS of work done there - that was quite an ambitious project

Getting blown away by this thread. Thanks for taking us along.

Thanks Leo, it's been a work in progress. Just have way to many projects to get it all done at once and updates to the house are more of a priority. Seems like my needs for it change year to year, and so my plans for it do too.

I think I'm going to be happy with the new DC setup. Everything is screwed together so making changes should be easy if I need to do so. I've had the DC for about a year and forget to use it, so having it connected all the time should help with that.

Looking good Darren...I need to step up from this old shop vac to a real system myself. Me> green with envy

Nicely done, Darren.

And add me to the list of those who are envious of the fact that you've got 2000 sf to work with. In fact, part of me hates you a little.

Brown paid a visit today and dropped off the dust hood for the Delta 22-540 my FIL gave me.


I got it installed a little while ago and thought I'd give it, the new ducts, and the controller a test spin. The controller is a work in progress, but I'll have some updates to it soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuHgpZR79pQ

Just Gotta LOVE that automatic stuff. That was awesome.

It's magic!! That controller is very cool.

Thanks guys. I think I figured out a new layout for the miter saw (next to the RAS), but will have me moving my main workbench to another wall. It will also require some more Wyes and drops to be added. Need to get back to my high chair project, but this was a nice detour.

Updates will be a couple weeks away on the controller, I ordered some new parts for it today and plan to move things off the breadboard to a prototype board (soldered). I'm hoping to monitor up to 5 circuits, but I think most of my tools are on only 3 currently. Will also be adding a display to be able to see what my current draws are and perhaps program the triggers without having to change the code.

Nice job Darren! The electronics rock!